A hostage is a civilian who has been restrained with cable ties or a law enforcer who has surrendered and handcuffed himself. They are a means of rescuing crew members from police custody. While it is possible to wait 210 seconds (3.5 minutes) for a crewmate to respawn on Normal difficulty or lower, a hostage exchange is significantly faster.

Once a crew member is taken into custody, Bain will automatically attempt to negotiate with the police. However, he cannot negotiate during a police assault, including the never-ending assault of a heist's "escape" phase. The amount of time required for negotiations is 5 seconds plus 10 for each civilian whom the crewmate has killed, and is indicated by the timer next to the crew member's name at the bottom-left corner of the HUD. If multiple crew members are in custody at once, then each of their timers will decrement independently.

Once negotiations are complete, the crew must trade a hostage. If a hostage already exists, then they will be highlighted in orange; if not, then the crew must either tie down a civilian or successfully intimidate a law enforcer. Once a hostage is highlighted, they will remain tradable even during an assault.

If a civilian hostage's cable ties are removed, they will attempt to flee; however, a player with more cable ties can recapture them. If a security guard or law enforcer is uncuffed, then he cannot be taken hostage again and will resume attacking the crew.

Hint: Always punch them with a melee attack and shout at them while they stand up. Normal police officers, guards, FBI agents and normal SWAT units need one melee hit, heavy SWAT units need two and also gangsters and special units cannot be taken hostage.